Means, Motive, Opportunity (Damien)

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Damien Daemon"]

She'd found the Mando recon cruiser skulking the asteroid field that had once been the planet Donanyd. If this were any other ship of its class, she'd have moved along, but she'd come here looking for this particular ship.

Or, more precisely, its commander.

From the bloody, charred bridge of the 'Darasuum,' she watched the 'Scar of Ilum' pull away. The tough little freighter vanished into hyperspace with a cargo of prisoners. That left Mara with a handful of crewers alone on the Mando cruiser, for now anyway. The goal here was to extract intelligence on other perpetrators of the Ilum Enclave massacre. To do that, she needed to take this ship to a safe and secret port so its computers could be analyzed. Fortunately, this model of cruiser needed only half a dozen as a skeleton crew. Her people had been examining the automated ship's controls and systems for a while now, and they knew their business. Soon enough, they'd be ready to move out.

 

[Matreya]

Arms folded at the front view port of the Tor'ka'deny, otherwise known as the Village Idiot, named such over its previous six captains all dying within a few weeks of getting the position. It was damn near a cursed ship. Crazily, Valashu had simply removed the ship from the Manda's control then gifted it for the Daemon purposes. Damien couldn't understand why. Maybe there was some main goal he knew would come to fruitiom, one Damien hadn't seen yet.

"Commander, it seems just ahead a ship jumped to hyperspace." Called a voice behind him, and Damien raised a hand, gesturing with two extended fingers that he had heard. This was the area Val had sent him, but had given him no idea what he was supposed to do.

Maybe it involved the leaving ship... Damien immersed himself swiftly into the Force, as had been practiced a billion times before. While listening to the ever present energies, he slowly swept his eyes around the surrounding area. Then, seemingly from nowhere, his gaze swept back the way it had lazily gone, then located a ship resting there. The Force had told him to look there, so he would go there as well.

"Take us down toward that ship." Damien called out, pointing at the body ahead and to the left of their position.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Damien Daemon"]

[SIZE=11pt]The reconnaissance cruiser’s sensor panel ignited. Mara winced and moved over to focus on the new contact. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]“Problem?” said [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Eiarra[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt], her chief of staff and occasional bodyguard. When Mara didn’t answer, the middle-aged Chalactan woman came over to stand beside her. “That looks like a warship, Mara, heading right for us. I don’t recognize the model, do you?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Mara’s eyes tightened as she recognized tension in Eiarra’s voice. “No, but this close to Mando space...feth.” She tapped the comlink in her long coat’s collar. “Styr?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]“[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Ma’am?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]“Possible Mandalorian [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]cruiser [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]coming up. Are you and Mesumi able to handle the guns?”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]“This ship was built for a handful of men,” [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]the big half-Valkyri rumbled. [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]“And only Mandalorians. We will suffice.”[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Mara settled into the bloody command-and-control chair of the heavily automated ship. Shields and weapons hummed to life as her new [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]cruiser[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] ‘Darasuum’ maneuvered behind one of the larger nearby asteroids.[/SIZE]

 

[Matreya]

Damien watched as suddenly the ship moved away from its position. Someone was aboard that craft. Sending out a tendril of his mental acuity, he counted enough to successfully handle the craft, plus a lessoned Force power. Who they... She was, he didnt delve into knowing. Simply he scanned to know what was to come.. Such as one getting ready the arms of the craft.

"Sir, they are one of the Manda. A ship of Merr Sonns to be exact." Said one of those in front of a computer screen.

"I noticed." Damien had already traversed the ship a quick bit using his mental senses, and recognized plenty of the main signs of the company's manufacturing. Rubbing his chin as he mulled over the situation, "Hail their craft, let them know we know this is not their craft, and therefore it is stolen. Also, tell them if they relinquish the craft they can leave freely."

Immediately the amount of backlash to his senses was resounding, by the sheer amount of mental arguments. This was not the thieving crews space, nor their ship, yet he would let them walk? Finally an actual voice began, "Sir, Im not sure that-"

"Do it or i will, and you will be expunged from this journey."

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Damien Daemon"]

"Do you feel that?" said Eiarra Denirel quietly. "Someone strong in the Force is aware of us." The Theran Listener tilted her head. "I'm catching snippets of disagreement, but if I push too hard he'll notice I'm listening."

Mara eyed the sensor displays. The asteroid's bulk kept sensor data vague, but that cruiser had looked serious. She toggled the comms. "Theft is for cowards," she said to the Mandalorian officer at the other end of the kind. "This ship's commander owed me blood for killing kids. He's paid his debt, and his ship was part of that price. It's mine now. There'll be no surrender. Wouldn't be even if I could trust your word."

 

[Matreya]

"Sir, they declined." Said a voice behind Damien, whom had already heard via the thoughts of those around him. Damien was knew to this. He had never been in a ship to ship battle. But he couldn't allow his company to be stolen from. As far as he could tell the other ship heavily outclassed his own pertaining to speed and handling, so with that knowledge it was likely he was facing a far weaker ship in comparison to his own.

"Blast the asteroid they are lurking behind. Full attack." Immediately the crew jumped to handle all of what the craft had to offer. Suddenly rockets and lasers galore shot from his craft.

(Lets pretend this is sophisticated like i know what im doing.)

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Damien Daemon"]

Beside the recon cruiser, the asteroid came apart at the seams. A titanic amount of weapons fire was being poured into it. In fairly short order, turbolasers would pound the asteroid to rubble and slag, then punch through to do the same to the recon cruiser. That much was obvious.

Donanyd's remains had been scattered unevenly, and a good portion of them had pulled together irregularly under force of mutual gravity. The planet's graveyard had thinner or denser areas rather than a uniform distribution. This region was fairly thin, not overly hazardous to either cruiser.

Maneuvering to keep the shattering rock between the ships, Mara adjusted the nimble cruiser's angle, then accelerated for a denser region. Ideally, she could bait the other cruiser into dangerous circumstances. A few asteroid collisions could go a long way toward evening the odds.

 

[Matreya]

Damien watched the angles of the ship as it moved away from his own, ever presently keeping the planetary remains between the two of them. It was a means of continued protection, but it also meant that they had to keep an eye ahead at all times...

"Attempt to aim ahead of the craft, keep as close as our speed will allow, but definitely focus on creating more debris in front of them!" Damien called back from his stance at the viewport. This was his first true ship to ship battle, though not his first chase. He could still play too his strengths...

Speaking of... Should he use the Force? It was one of his highest strengths.. He chose to do so as best he was able under the circumstances. Dropping onto his butt, he crossed his legs, lowering quickly into the Force. As he became one with the Living Energy, he became one with its plans and goals. The thoughts of the Force, while not truly thoughts, became clear in their presentation of feelings, shapes, colors, minor details as such. Fueled by the power, Damien reached out ahead of the craft, attempting to create an illusion of a secondary ship as it came in from the north.

Always play ones strengths, no?

(Sorry, never even got the notification. )
[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Damien Daemon"]

Asteroid fragments began to pummel the Darasuum's low-grade shields. Despite the ship's above-average speed and maneuverability, it was still just a cruiser: evasion wasn't really its forte. Utility tractor beams slowed and blunted the worst of the collisions, but the shield strain meter began to tick upward - quickly.

"New sensor contact," Eiarra snapped. "Dead ahead."

Wrestling with the helm, Mara glanced over. "Mando?"

"I think so." The Theran Listener - a Master of the Force.in her own way - closed her eyes and tilted her head. "I can't catch what they're saying. It's muddy. I've never heard or felt something like this - it feels normal, natural, but I can't catch details."

Mara turned the helm over to her longtime helmsman and stretched out to the Force herself, specifically her empathic senses. She'd expected to feel anger, apprehension about the debris; instead she found nothing she could pin down. "You're right, something's off. Maybe they're drugged or implanted, or maybe..."

She drew a sharp breath and subsumed herself in the Force in a very specific way, one that her Master, the great White Current illusionist Aleidis Ijet, had taught her.

And to her, the second ship disappeared.

"Ship's an illusion," she hissed. "Pretend we're still wary of it. Pick another vector, one that still gives us decent cover but leads us away from both ships. Maybe he'll use illusion again when it's more crucial."